Journalistic Skillsets in the Age of Data-Driven Journalism

In our contribution, we investigate the adaptability of journalists
and editorial teams to the changes brought to the profession by the
advent of new, more technology-driven journalism. We posit that to
remain relevant in these fast-changing times, journalistic
organizations have to generate a new innovativeness and creativity
out of their own core, relying on as many shoulders in the
organization as possible. Technological determinism characterized
the academic discourse about the modifications the Internet (i.e.
Social Media) would bring to journalism. One may get the impression
that technological innovations would trigger social change and
business model innovation virtually by default. However, with the
ongoing observations of the journalistic system it became apparent
that existing practices tend to resist change, as journalists tend
to hold on to their (former) powerful role models, and the system
relies on common business models. Thus, in our research we want to
opt for an approach uncoupled from this technological determinism.
We study innovation in journalism in the social context of roles,
practices and formats within newsrooms. In a new approach, we
therefore focus on the integration of journalists into innovation
processes of media organizations, in other words, we ask how to make
journalists not just participators of creativity and innovation
processes, but to stimulators and inspirers.

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